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City of New Amsterdam History
City of New Amsterdam History In 1664, an English attempt to conquer the New Netherlands failed and the town of New Amsterdam remained in the hands of the Dutch Republic and in the following years grew and prospered. In 1667, the Dutch Director-General of the colony Petrus Stuyvesant appointed Stephanus van Cortlandt as the first mayor of New Amsterdam. In 1754, New Amsterdam University (OTL Columbia University) was founded under charter by William V, Prince of Orange Stadtholder of the United Provinces in Lower Manhattan. The city was the base for operations conducted by the Dutch republic in the in order to keep the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War) out of the colony of the New Netherlands which remained somewhat neutral during the war. A group of merchants in 1792, began meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, beginning the New Amsterdam Exchange, while a yellow fever epidemic that summer sent New Amsterdam citizens fleeing north to nearby healthful Groenwijck ( OTL Greenwich Village ). In 1795 the just established New Netherlands Assembly met in the City of New Amsterdam, making it the national capital of the independent New Netherlands where the New Netherlands Constitution was created by the New Netherlands Assembly at New Amsterdam Hall on Wall Street where also the first Prime Minister of New Netherlands, Stephen Van Rensselaer, was inaugurated. In 1807, Robert Fulton initiated a steamboat line from City of New Amsterdam to Beverwijck (OTL Albany City). In 1821 the Long Island Hurricane caused a storm surge of 13 feet in one hour, leading to widespread flooding south of Kanaal Straat (Canal Street). New Amsterdam grew as an economic center, first as a result of policies and practices and, later, with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which forming a continuous water route from the western Great Lakes to the Atlantic and north to Lake Champlain; helped the city grow further by increasing river traffic. Immigration resumed after being slowed by wars in Europe, and a new street grid system expanded to encompass all of Manhattan. In 1831, as the city continued to expand, the Groenwijck University (OTL New York University), was founded at Rensselaer Plein (OTL Washington Square) in the town of Groenwijck. By 1835, Manhattan was in the throes of the first of its building booms, unfazed by the summer of cholera in 1832. The establishment of regular steam ferries, starting with Robert Fulton's Fulton Ferry in 1814, spurred the growth of Breuckelen (OTL Brooklyn), which was established as a city in 1834. Somewhere in 1835 the Great Fire of New Amsterdam broke out which leveled most of the city below Kanaal Straat (Canal Street). The fires of the period, and the increased need for water for industry, led to the construction of the Croton Aqueduct water system between 1837 and 1842. The aqueduct opened in 1842, with great celebration. Prime Minster of New Netherlands Martin Van Buren and former Prime Minster Herman Knickerbocker were among those in attendance. The city's rapid development was again interrupted by the Panic of 1837. But the city recovered and by mid-century established itself as major financial and mercantile capital in the western hemisphere. The North River Railroad opened October 3, 1851; it extended Beverwijck and Schenectady Railroad, first railroad built in the country, south to the City of New Amsterdam. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants and by 1850, the Irish comprised almost 10 % of the city's population. Government institutions, including the New Amsterdam City Police Department in 1844 and the first public schools in the 1850s to respond to growing demands of residents where established by the City of New Amsterdam. The city and its nearby suburbs grew rapidly for several reasons. The natural harbor at the base of Manhattan, Breuckelen, and the ports at Newark and Elizabeth provided almost unlimited capacity for trading ships and protection from storms. Cities, like Boston in the Commonwealth of New England and Baltimore and Philadelphia in the United States of America, had good natural harbors, but New Amsterdam’s advantage over other cities on the Eastern Seaboard was that the North River and the Erie Canal formed the only water-level route through the Appalachian Mountains. In 1874, nearly 31% of all United States of America exports passed through New Amsterdam harbor. In 1884, nearly 40% of United States of America imports came through New Amsterdam. The eventual rise of ports on the Gulf of Mexico and on the Pacific coast reduced New Amsterdam share of imports and exports to about 27%. Between 1860 and 1907, the assessed value of the land and buildings on Manhattan rose from 800 million to 2.4 billion Nieuw Nederlandse guldens. The modern city of New Amsterdam which consists of five autonomous stadsdeels (borough), Breuckelen (OTL Brooklyn), Maspeth-Vlissingen (OTL Queens), Lange Eylant (OTL Long Island), Staaten Eylandt (OTL Staten Island) and Manhattan was created in 1898. Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2,500 short tons of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief. The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the City of New Amsterdam Metro (Subway), as the separate Stadsdeel New Amsterdam Municipal Metro and Breuckelen-Manhattan Metro, and the later Independent Metro Service, and the opening of the first Metro line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 and the Manhattan Bridge in 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Breuckelen. The world-famous Grand Central Station opened as the world's largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier Station on the site. These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Groenwijck (OTL Greenwich Village) took the lives of 145 mostly Italian and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. Immigrant families continued establishing themselves, and more started moving into the neighborhoods outside Manhattan; in a sign of Stadsdeel maturation, the 1920 census showed Breuckelen for the first time overtaking Manhattan as the most populous Stadsdeel. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Crash of 1929 in the United States of America affected the City of New Amsterdam but thanks to the efforts of then mayor of the City of New Amsterdam (1926–1930) Franklin D. Roosevelt and later prime minster from 1930 onwards, the city was able to largely avoid the situation which where sweeping across the United States of America. In 1934, New Netherlands Labor Party reformer Fiorello La Guardia became the first Italian-New Netherlands personal to become the mayor of the City of New Amsterdam.